A Calming Influence
by everytimeyougo
Summary: I once told you that I needed you to keep me in my place. Obviously I was right. House/Cameron. Takes place after Living the Dream.


**_A/N So this has been floating around my head for awhile and I figured the only way to get rid of it was to write it down. Please keep in mind that I am an accountant, not a writer, so sorry if it sucks. Thanks for reading!_**

**A Calming Influence**

Taub, Kutner and Thirteen sat at the conference room table, surreptitiously glancing into the next room at the blonde woman seated with her feet up on their boss's desk.

"What are we going to do?" Kutner whispered.

"Uh, nothing," Taub whispered back. "Not our business."

"But you know it's somehow going to be _our_ fault that she's in there," Thirteen hissed.

"Who's to say he'll even care if she's in there. She worked for him for years; surely she knows what she can get away with and what she can't," Taub countered.

Kutner's forehead hit the table. "He's going to fire us all."

On the other side of the glass wall, Allison Cameron reached across the desk and picked up the red and grey tennis ball. Noticing the three doctors watching her from the other room, she gave them a little finger-wave, inwardly rolling her eyes at the worried expressions on two of their faces.

Just then, House came strolling down the hall and entered the conference room. "Still no patients?" he griped. "Damned healthy living initiatives." He turned to enter his office and spotted Cameron sitting at his desk, tossing his ball from hand to hand. He immediately rounded on his staff. "What the hell is she doing in there?" he bellowed at them. "She's touching my stuff! Don't you idiots know that part of your job is to protect my territory from interlopers?"

"Uh, right…I was just about to go in there and throw her out," stammered Kutner. House just glared at him, turned around and limped into his office.

"Was that really necessary, House?" Cameron asked, grinning at her former boss. "You knew I'd be in here, seeing as you're the one who paged me and told me to meet you here."

"Necessary? No. Fun? Yes. But never mind them…don't you want to know _why _I paged you here?"

"You wanted to invite me to another monster truck rally as thanks for doing your paperwork last week?" Cameron guessed hopefully.

"Uh, no. Nice try though. Actually, I have a proposition for you."

Cameron put the tennis ball back in its place, stood up and walked over to stand in front of him. "Okay," she said, interested in spite of herself. "What's the proposition?"

"Not here, the walls have ears…and eyes," he added, nodding at the three in the other room who were now watching openly. "C'mon." He grabbed her by the arm and pulled her out of the office and towards the elevator, leaving his employees staring after them.

XXXXXXXXXX

"Two beers, good woman" House said to the waitress working in the dingy bar across from the hospital where he and Cameron were now sharing a booth.

"House! We can't drink! We're both still on shift. I shouldn't even be here. I've got to get back." Cameron started to slide out of the booth.

"Oh would you relax. Your shift ends in fifteen minutes and this is legitimate Cuddy-approved hospital business. I told you, I have a proposition for you."

"A "legitimate hospital business" kind of proposition? That's too bad." Cameron smirked as she sat back down.

House stared at her for a second before shaking his head. "Stop trying to distract me. One kind of proposition at a time."

"You're no fun. Fine, what's on your mind?"

"Foreman's leaving. Seems he's been looking for another position the entire time he's been back. Finally found someone to take a chance on him. He's going all the way to Seattle to escape me and my dazzling reputation."

Cameron looked down at the table. "Yeah, I knew he was looking. You had to have known he wasn't happy here. You were undercutting him every chance you got."

"What! You knew and you didn't tell me! I thought we were friends," House whined as the waitress arrived with their beers. "You brought me coffee and everything!"

"I…I'm sorry, but he's my friend too and I thought…"

"Again, relax," House interrupted. "Of course I knew he was unhappy. Of course I knew he'd be history the first chance he got. I haven't changed and neither has he, so I'm sure he still doesn't want to be me. Doesn't want to be here. Anyway, not important. Good riddance. Now I just need to replace him, which leads me to the aforementioned proposition."

Cameron sighed. "House we've been over this. I don't miss you and I don't want my old job back. I don't even want Foreman's old job back. I'm happy in the ER."

"One, do you honestly think I can't tell when you're lying? You do miss me. And two, it's not your old job. It's not Foreman's old job either, though it could have been. A year ago, the first time he quit, Cuddy offered him his own diagnostics practice, working with me but not for me. He turned it down. I've, ah, convinced her to make you the same offer."

"What! Why? Why me? Why not Chase?" Cameron stammered.

"Because I don't like Chase," he said staring at the table.

"You don't like me either."

He blinked at that, but didn't answer. Instead, he took a long pull on his beer and wiped his mouth with the back of his hand. Sufficiently fortified, he set the beer down on the table and lifted his eyes to meet her confused gaze. "Look Cameron, I don't know if you've noticed, but this hasn't exactly been a stellar year for me. The ridiculous pranks, the idiots I hired, the goddamned knife in the outlet. I've been…not myself. Some people might argue that's a good thing, but I don't think it is. For me or for my patients. I once told you that I needed you to keep me in my place. Obviously I was right."

"You think _I_ can keep you in line? I think you're giving me too much credit, House. I hate to break it to you, but you did some pretty outrageous things back when I still worked for you too."

"Outrageous, sure. That's just part of my charm. But not…idiotic. It's not anything you do, specifically. I'm just…calmer…when you're nearby. Come back."

"I…I don't know, it's a lot to think about." She took a sip of her beer and then shook her head as if to clear it. "I need more specifics."

"Yeah, not my forte. Talk to Cuddy, she'll show you a contract or something."

"How did you get her to agree to this anyway?" She asked curiously.

"Didn't take much convincing; she knows you're being wasted in the ER." He smirked. "Besides, have you met Cuddy? She loves me, gives me whatever I want."

Cameron rolled her eyes. "And what you want now is… me?"

"Yeah, looks that way. Don't let it go to your head."

"It will be difficult but I'll try."

"Good…well gotta get back before the dumbass patrol hurt themselves trying to figure out what's going on." He stood up. "But we'll definitely talk about whatever kind of proposition _you_ had in mind another time. Oh and the beers are on you."

"Right," Cameron sighed, making a mental note to ask Cuddy for an extra large expense account.

The End


End file.
